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ICG refutes Jayalalithaa’s complaints against SLN
India’s Coastguard (ICG) has rebuffed complaints by Tamil Nadu (TN) Chief Minister (CM) Jayalalithaa Jayaram, saying there are no instances of the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) trespassing the Indian side of the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) and arresting TN fishermen.
ICG Director General, Rajendra Singh, told journalists on Friday, his institution was “constantly interacting with the fishermen, through our community interaction programme, to educate them.”
“We have held 236 programmes in 2016 alone and our teams are reaching out to villages along the TN coast and educating the fishermen not to cross the IMBL, be it between India and Sri Lanka, or Pakistan or Bangladesh, or Myanmar,” Mr Singh said. He was speaking to the media on the sidelines of the Indo-Korea Joint Maritime Exercise “Sahyog-Hyeoblyeog 2016” being held off the Chennai coast.
The ICG chief also said the force would strengthen its air surveillance in the region by inducting 14 helicopters from next financial year. “The indigenously built Chetak helicopters do not have the ability to go over deep sea, with each sortie lasting only one or two hours. The twin-engine Eurocopters can make longer trips and can fly continuously for six to seven hours,” said Singh.
Mr Singh revealed that the ICG is set to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Coastguards of Sri Lanka and Myanmar to conduct joint exercises. Through these periodic exercises, the forces of the countries share real time information and issues related to pollution, search and control, piracy and day-to-day information.
Significantly, Mr Singh’s remarks come a day after the TN CM wrote a strongly-worded letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging that fishermen from her State were “facing daily threats of harassment and abduction at the hands of the SLN, while they fish in their traditional fishing waters in the Palk Bay”. This is the second letter in a week sent by Jayalalithaa making allegations against the SLN.
“Sri Lanka’s strategy of not releasing the boats while releasing the fishermen and thus throttling the livelihood of the fishermen is causing immense frustration among TN fishermen. I urge you to take this up with the highest authorities of the Sri Lanka Government and ensure the immediate release of our fishermen and their fishing boats,” said Jayalalithaa in her letter.
Jayalalithaa wants Narendra Modi to restore the traditional rights of TN fishermen by annulling the “ill-advised Indo-Sri Lanka agreements of 1974 and 1976” urgently. She said there were 21 fishermen and 92 fishing boats in the custody of the Sri Lanka authorities.
The Modi Government at the Centre is in a predicament, as it does not have an absolute majority in the Rajya Sabha (Upper House). Hence, it is dependent on regional parties such as the All India Anna DMK and Trinamool Congress.
This is the second time in two years the ICG is declaring that the SLN is a good friend of the country, and has never ever attacked any TN fishermen. In an affidavit filed with the Madras High Court earlier this year, the ICG told the Madras High Court, “The SLN has not attacked even a single fisherman on the Indian side of the IMBL.”